This article investigates the persistent and change elements of educational testing and assessment from 1920 to the present day. I show by examining the addresses and texts of American Educational Research Association presidents a continuing focus on schools, from early experiments and development up through applications in accountability systems.…

A battery of objective examinations administered to Grade 12 students in Toronto and Ontario consisted of tests designated as Scholastic Aptitude Test (Verbal and Mathematics Sections), World History, Economics, Algebra, and Latin. Norms were prepared on the tests for each of three groups of students: General, Technical, and Commercial. The tests…

A structure for describing different approaches to testing is generated by identifying five dimensions along which tests differ: test uses, item generation, item revision, assessment of precision, and validation. These dimensions are used to profile tests of reading comprehension. Only norm-referenced achievement tests had an inference system…

School psychologists frequently are involved in assessment programs for children entering kindergarten. A comparison is made between screening and assessment related to norm-based and criterion-referenced assessment. (Author)

The author defines criterion-referenced (CRT) and norm-referenced (NRT) tests, considers current objections to each, and distinguishes their appropriate uses: CRTs for pupil diagnosis and instruction and NRTs for surveying achievement in a long-term evaluation context. Part of a theme issue on student assessment. (SJL)

This paper delineates several problems which arise when criterion-referenced test results are used to evaluate the effects of a specific educational treatment. Focus is on these topics: (1) the aggregation of individual students' data on objectives, (2) the sensitivity of the instrument to instruction, (3) the interpretation of…

Measuring student writing skills can be done holistically, by ranking compositions without enumerating their linguistic, rhetorical, or information features, or atomistically, by viewing compositions as collections of these features. A variety of holistic approaches, including primary score testing, exist. Though their reliability has been…

Career Education was introduced to Dade County, Florida schools three years ago. An evaluation was conducted of the elementary school level (Career Awareness) and at the junior high school level (Career Exploratory) during 1974-75. The results of that evaluation, while positive at the elementary level, were inconclusive at the junior high school…